Russians Speculate About Putin’s Spine

What’s happening with President
Vladimir Putin’s spine? This is the question that has Russians
guessing as their leader engages in the time-honored tradition
of denying his health problems.

Top Russian officials have long preferred to hide their
illnesses, an instinct that can turn even minor ailments into
global media events. The practice harks back at least to the
Soviet era, when Kremlin watchers divined policy shifts by
noting which geriatric Communist leader was absent from the top
of Lenin’s tomb as the May Day parade went by. General
Secretaries Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko were both
hospitalized for months before the public knew of their
conditions. Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, kept the
world in the dark about a heart attack until after he had won
the 1996 elections.

Now, Vladimir Putin has a bad back, and his refusal to
comment on it is fueling intense speculation. Versions range
from spinal cancer to the complete disappearance of the
president’s backside. “The interest in Putin’s back can only be
compared to that in the hind parts of Jennifer Lopez,” wrote
Olga Pershina on the St. Petersburg site neva24.ru.

The ailment doesn’t look life-threatening, just extremely
uncomfortable as Putin walks or sits down. The president has
canceled some official events and stopped traveling to his
Kremlin office from his country house every day. On Dec. 3,
during a visit to Istanbul, he winced as he lowered himself into
an armchair, prompting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan to
bend solicitously as if to help him. State-controlled Russian TV
chose an angle that made the moment look innocuous.

Spokesmen and supporters say the back trouble is simply a
sign of the president’s athleticism. “He likes to wrestle,”
Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko was quoted as saying. “So
he was wrestling, he lifted a man to throw him over his back and
sprained his spine.”

Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, chief of staff Sergei Ivanov and presidential press secretary Dmitri Peskov have all
stuck to the sports version since September, when Putin limped
visibly during a summit meeting in Vladivostok. Peskov has noted
that Putin, a judo black belt, likes to spar with a much heavier
partner.

At one point, Peskov blew up. “I am sick of explaining,” he
fumed to the official news agency RIA Novosti. “I see no point
to it anymore. Those who refuse to listen to the obvious
apparently just want to keep speculating.”

The president himself has kept mum, allowing the ailment to
take on a life of its own. In the absence of reliable
information -- who would believe Peskov and Medvedev? -- rumors
abound. One widespread theory suggests Putin has cancer of the
spine. A fake obituary circulated briefly on the Web. “Peskov:
Putin does not have a back and has never had one,” ran a much-
circulated tweet.

Some commentators have identified the back pain as the
motivation for the large-scale anti-corruption campaign that has
shaken up the Moscow bureaucracy in recent weeks. “If Putin’s
back starts hurting, the least useful ministers’ butts start
burning,” blogger Konstantin Voron tweeted.

The tabloid MK, in a column titled “Putin’s Back as the
Mainstay of Power,” focused on the deep symbolic significance of
the president’s spine. “The viability of the vertical system of
power directly depends on the viability of the man who controls
it,” wrote journalist Mikhail Rostovsky. “If he weakens, the
entire system will tremble.”

Putin’s injury might have triggered a karmic chain
reaction. On Dec. 3, Turkish media reported that Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov had broken his arm at an Istanbul hotel.
The entourage of journalists accompanying Lavrov on the trip
failed to report the incident. “There is nothing shameful about
a minister breaking his arm, but it is a disgrace to hide the
fact,” journalist Pavel Sheremet wrote on Facebook.